Freedom's Will
by Lupa Altre
Summary: Tsukiyume was a normal, if highly intelligent, girl. One encounter with a dying Phoenix later, not so much. Next thing you know, she's surrounded by hot guys, and has not just one, but two, highly important (not to mention unwanted) positions. "Ah, whatever. So long as I am free and can do what I wish, it doesn't really matter. What's the point of life if you aren't living?" ALLx27
1. Chapter 1 - If you find a dying phoenix

"What's the point of life if you aren't living? Why does everyone focus on useless things like money or fame or power. Why can't we focus on what makes us happy. Whether it's cooking or creating, painting or hacking, why can't we stop just surviving, and start _truly living. _That's what freedom is for, you know." -Me

**Disclaimer - I do not own KHR or anything else that is mentioned in this story**

_**Warning - ALL27, as in polyamory, as in, several people who love one person who loves them back. All. At. Once. This is a big thing here, so deal with it. Dark undertones. In later chapters, there will be mentions of things like torture, murder, pedophilia, and sex. If you can't handle it, leave. I won't write lemons or anything like that, however, I will make it clear that yes, it did indeed happen.**_

_This is a Crackfic. I will butcher the timeline, and do whatever I want with the power of artistic license. If I want to do it like this, I'll do it like this. If I want to make a psychopath a good guy, I'll do so. If I want to keep Mukuro and the rest out of Vendicare, then that's what's going to happen. I'll take advice, but in the end, it's my story, and I'll do what I want._

Have fun.

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><p>In the middle of an isolated clearing, in a forest that was untouched by time and the hands of men, silent outside of the calls of the beasts and the rustling of leaves-<p>

"Tsukiyume Sawada! Where exactly do you think you're going?" A worried voice called out, scattering nearby wildlife as they attempted to flee from the noise.

Okay, scratch that last bit. The rest is true though! Anyways, in this clearing, in this forest, upon the well known Mount Fuji, a life changing event would soon take place. After all, if there wasn't one, we wouldn't have a story to tell, now would we?

"Don't worry mama, I'm just going to explore a little, I won't go far!" A sweet, feminine voice responded to the first.

"Oh, is that all. It's fine then, go on." The nearby wildlife, who had come for some reason or another (you'll find out soon enough, don't worry) all sweatdropped at this response. _What kind of mother would send their four year old child out in the forest by themselves without a worry?!_

Meanwhile, the mother in question flashed a smirk that changed to a cheerful smile before anyone else could spot it. She didn't worry, after all, her precious daughter wasn't going to be taken down by a tumble down a hill or any such thing, she was much too smart for that. After all, who do you think taught her? There's no self-respecting ex-mercenary in the world who would leave their child without severe spartan training from a young age! Even if her darling child did encounter something troublesome, she would easily be there before anything had a chance to happen.

"All right mama, I'll be back in time for my language lessons!" At this last assurance, the tiny child went skipping off into the forest. Now, let's take a look at our heroine, shall we?

Smooth, gold-tinted skin covered a lithe, cat-like form, and as she moved through the forest, no animals fled, as it seemed that she was a part of it just like the rest of them. Each step was well placed, and her center of balance was so perfect, that the child was dashing and jumping of tiny outcropping and thin branches, with all the ease and grace of a hunting jaguar. Her mouths was in the form of a brilliant smile, that seemed to light up the surroundings, and make everything seem brighter, oversized canines glinting like ivory. Knee length, platinum blonde hair flowed behind her like the reflection of the moon upon the ocean's waves. Her eyes were brilliant, shining honey-brown, though recently, the left one had begun to turn the blue of the sky at the moment it began to turn to night, a blue so deep it seems to draw you in with the offer of freedom and acceptance, constantly swirling between darker blacks and lighter blues, with brilliant gold flecks that are reminiscent of stars glimmering in it's depths. Her form, while still retaining a hint of baby fat that wouldn't leave till her later years, was at the same time thin, and, if a well-trained person looked closely, her seemingly frail and thin form was corded with lean muscles under smooth, soft skin, that were unnoticeable to most.

As she moved like the forest like she was part of it, the trees seemed to sway to guide her in a certain direction, and the wind pushed her faster, speeding her along, as she continued, brightly colored birds flew just in front of her, keeping her attention as she continued to follow them. Her lips drew back further, smile feral, as she continued on. Something pulled at her, drove her to continue forth, and the wind seemed to whisper in her ears, _this way, child of the forest, this way, daughter of fire and wind_, though she was a rather sensible child, and so chalked it up to her imagination.

Soon, she noticed a clearing up ahead, and the pull seemed to grow even stronger than before, finally, as she burst into the clearing at a speed beyond that of what a human, much less a child, should have been able to handle, she came to an abrupt stop that threw even her balance off, leading to a series of flips and cartwheels in an attempt at slowing down. Euphoria fled her body as she stared in horror at the sight before her, which, despite her young age, she quickly recognized for what it was, as there were few who could match her maturity, even at her young age.

In the middle of the clearing, lay the most beautiful creature she had ever seen. It was a massive bird twice her side, with feather that resembled flames. The central color was, oddly enough considering the flame-like resemblance, red-blue, though there were oranges, crimson, deep blues, and greens as well. There were even several areas where white feathers were the central scheme throughout it's plumage. Each feather shone with an odd light that rippled and wavered, brightening and shadowing, like liquid fire. It's wings were huge as well, it's wingspan approximately 16 feet, and the primary feathers broke the color scheme, in that they were obsidian black, with glimmering gold patterns etching their way across it. It's tail feathers, meanwhile, were as long as the bird was tall, and there were five of them, each with an odd pattern that ended with a large dot, resembling peacock feathers. One had a blue color scheme, the next, green, the middle was pure white with crimson patterns, the next with orange, and the last with a red like that of a ruby. It had a flamelike crest upon it's head, that began with white, before flowing out to blue, which became red, before ending as orange.

However, seeing a phoenix was quickly accepted, as children aren't nearly as stiff as adults when it comes to things like this. Rather, she focused on what she considered the problem here, which was the fact that beautiful, silver blood was flowing freely from a huge gash across it's chest, staining it's white plumage. Quickly, she ran over to the bird, not thinking for a moment, of the possibility of it harming her, after all, despite her maturity, she was still a child, and children rarely think of such things. Pulling out some bandages that she always made sure to carry with her _(remember Tsuki-chan, anything can happen, so always be prepared!)_ and some herbs she had gathered in the forest, as the reason her mother brought her on this trip, was to teach her about natural herbs and plants. Quickly making a poultice, she placed it on the wound, and began wrapping bandages around it. All the while, the majestic bird watched on, sharp golden-red eyes softening the slightest bit at the child who attempted to help him.

The phoenix knew, however, that he wouldn't survive this. She was only easing the pain of his passing, and slowing the inevitable. The wound was too deep, and had been there too long for her to save him. However, she had solved one problem at least. He was the King of the Phoenix's, and required someone to pass his abilities and position onto. It hadn't been done in millennia, and there had never been a case of the King himself (or herself, gender mattered little in regards to the position, King simply referred to their leader, the most wise and powerful among them) however, there was a first time for everything, and the pure goodness he could feel from her told him she would do fine.

So, decision made, as she leaned closer in worry, he struggled up to tower above her, and, swifter than such a large bird should have been able to, wrapped his wings around her until she was in a cocoon of feathers and warmth. His ivory talons flexed, ebony claws tipping them, and the barely noticeably gold runic designs glowed and twisted. His body began to burn away, flames rising up as he disintegrated into ash. He bent his swan-like neck, until his forehead touched hers, and she stared up at him, eyes watering as she understood that she wasn't able to save him. He cooed at her soothingly, as flames that didn't burn licked at her skin. In the next moment, he burst completely into flames of blue and white, though rather than disappearing and misting away, they remained in the area that he had previously stood, as though the space his body had been in was a container that the flames couldn't escape.

However, this occurrence only lasted a few seconds, before the flames began flowing _into_ her. There were five points at which the flames entered, the center of her forehead, the center of her chest, just above her heart, at the base of her spine, and her two shoulder blades. She shuddered, as a muted feeling of pain reached her, as though from far away. Her mind felt fuzzy and unfocused, like something was preventing her from feeling the full effect of the pain. It seemed to last hours, though in reality, it was only two minutes before the changes settled in. She stumbled a bit, swaying on her feet, however, she didn't fall (her mother had made sure of it), instead, she made her way to a small still pond a few feet away. What she saw made her blink twice in surprise, before shrugging and leaning down for a drink. Children are, after all, quite accepting of odd things.

What she had seen was her new appearance. Her eye had rather abruptly finished the change to what she decided to refer to as Nebula Blue, and the other had changed as well. Instead of honey brown, it was a mix of several colors. They swirled like a tornado of flames, red to orange to white, with the slightest hints of purple mixed in. Her previously unmarked skin was now adorned with runic markings. On the center of her forehead, there was a diamond made of twining blue-red lines, with what looked like the outlines of folded wings attached to it. Two triangles were under each of her eyes, and also had the twisting vine-like lines around them. Four twining lines ran down both of her arms, branching and curling and tapering off to thin points, ending in thin lines at the end of her right wrist that looked similar to cursive writing in some strange language that she had never before seen, yet automatically knew. It spelled out _Yuekasai _which, her mind told her, was her name in the new culture that she would be soon entering. On her other hand, the same thing happened, except it spelled _Welunixen_, which she knew would be important later. However, among humans-and she wasn't sure when it became like an us and them situation-she would continue going by Tsukiyume. The occurrence on her arms repeated itself on her legs, though the words didn't repeat themselves, and instead ended in sharp lines.

Her platinum blonde hair had changed as well. Previously a sheet of silky white-gold, there were now feathers and streaks of color interspersed throughout, in the colors blue, red, orange, yellow, and green, though her original hair color remained the primary one.

Finally, in the center of her chest, she had a diamond. No, seriously, I'm not kidding. Right above where her heart was, there was a large black-blue diamond, about the size of a four year olds fist. That was the extent of the changes in her appearance-at least, the changes to what had already been there. Not to mention, she felt several times stronger than before, though she would investigate that later. Her nails were abnormally sharp as well.

The most eye catching change, though, wasn't really a change, rather, it was an addition. Folded behind her shoulder blades, both appendages twice as long as she was tall, were a pair of wings identical to that of the phoenix who had been there previously. though they were a bit more streamlined and graceful, than thick and powerful. The only other difference was that there was no orange, and more white. The tail feathers were there as well, identical to the original's tail feathers, except for the eye-like markings, which, instead of colored, were completely transparent, and reflected her surroundings.

None of this bothered her though, after all, she had read stories about such things, instead, she was far more concerned with how long she had been gone! He mama was _scary_ when she was mad.

Just as she began to recover from the disorienting experience (and subdued the pang of sadness in her heart) a wave of pain burned through her skull. Memories flashed by faster than she could see them, categorizing themselves within her mind so they would be there when she needed them. What she needed at that moment, however, was the way to get back to her mother quickly. Immediately, information flooded her mind, _how to fly, navigation, wait, there! Flaming, that should work, I might just survive this!_ Luckily, she had a moment, so, she spread her wings, and with a single beat, launched herself into the air. She was a bit stunned at the power behind her wings, and so it took her a moment to get her bearings, however, at the realization she was currently high in the air, she clumsily spread her wings and, after a brief wobble, balanced herself out. Smiling a bit, she focused on moving, and after five minutes, had gotten the hang of basic movement, though, considering a phoenix's grace, she was really about as graceful as an elephant, though it was decent for a beginner, she took to it quite naturally, as though she was meant to be in the air. Once again, she felt as though the wind was whispering to her, though she no longer discounted it, considering what had just happened.

_My daughter, my child of wind and fire, finally, finally you join me! I have waited for you, so long, so long, since you were born, yet, you remained on the ground, away from me. You got closer to me, closer, yet, you truly never joined me until now, I was so lonely, child, so lonely…_

"I'm sorry", she said, for she was. The wind sounded so sad, like a mother whose child had left her, yet at the same time, she was joyful, as her child had returned after so long.

_It's okay, child. _

With that, they spoke no longer, and she soon remembered, "Oh! That flaming thing, I have to try it!" And with that, making good use of the childlike tendency of not overthinking things like adults are so prone to do, simply focused on where she wanted to be, and willed herself there. A burst of white-tinted blue-tinted-red fire signified her success, and she was gone, only to appear just above the middle of the camp, right above her mother. Due to the shock of it working, her wings stalled, and her unconscious manipulation of the wind was abruptly stopped, thus, she plummeted down, and landed in a heap.

"Oh, Tsuki-chan! You're back, I'm so happy! You look very nice, by the way, what happened." By the end, her mother's tone became far more dangerous, so Tsuki quickly clambered off her and explained the situation, making sure to not leave anything out, and giving the best description she could. Her mama had made sure she knew that you always need to explain well, otherwise, you might miss something important. As she spoke, her mama wrote everything down in The Notebook, using their special code. As she finally finished, her mama looked up, and gave her a sharp nod, showing that she had done well, and that she approved, before her serious demeanor melted away, leaving her cheerful, not-so-oblivious nature behind.

"Good job, Tsuki-chan! Now, we'll have to up your training to include your new abilities of course. We'll do some research as well, and perhaps learn a wider range of languages once you finish Chinese and Korean. Perhaps Portuguese and Russian..." She hummed thoughtfully to herself, before quickly refocusing on Tsuki. "Anyways, we have to learn everything about your new abilities and write them down, also, I believe we can assume phoenixes have some kind of written word they know instinctually, and there seems to be another mysterious language you know as well… Anyways, teach me the two you know, and we can use them to make a code only we can read! Doesn't that sound _fun_!"

"..." Tsuki couldn't help feeling a bit worried.

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><p><em>One month later<em>

Tsukiyume sat at the very top of mount Fuji, on top of a boulder underneath a waterfall. She couldn't help but feel this was rather cliche, however, soon she realized why her mother had done it. The water did two things, weaken her due to her Phoenix side, and mess with her concentration. She needed both to do what she was attempting, which was fully turning into a phoenix, before fully turning into a human, before returning to the hybrid form, and repeating until she could do it easily. Her mother had made it a much harder task, however, once she had mastered it under such conditions, it would be like second nature to her.

During the month, she had gotten to a good skill level in flame production and control, she was also discovering that she could control weather, though it was incredibly difficult, and would take years of practice to even get at a decent level. Also, she could speak bird, and was learning fox and badger. She had finished learning Chinese and Korean the other day, and was now working on learning to speak Portuguese and Russian. Her mama had told her they would be learning Arabic and Italian next. Their conversations switched from one language to another every few sentences, thus improving her fluency and keeping her skills sharp, though to outside parties, it would sound a bit odd...

Anyways, and hour later, she grinned, or grinned as much as a Phoenix can, as she finally managed to change into a Phoenix, before refocusing on the task at hand, and beginning the process of going human.

When she managed to turn completely back, she looked almost identical to her old self, except a few things. First of all, her eyes remained their new colors of Nebula Blue and Firestorm reds and oranges. Second, her hair, while no longer having any feathers, still had streaks in it, though they were very faint. Third, on her back, she had an intricate tribal-style design of her wings, in the same colors and everything, though most would consider them a tattoo. Finally, the diamond on the center of her chest was still there, not having changed a bit. She wasn't too surprised though, as over the month, the had figured out that her new abilities were stored within the gem. Everytime she used her powers, it would glow faintly, and, now that she had become fully human, gold flames seemed to swirl within it, which, she supposed, were her Phoenix flames. Most likely, she wasn't fully changed back due to the fact that the powers were too immense to completely be stored away.

Also, all animals held great respect for her. They would come to her for help when one was sick or wounded, and would be willing to hear her out if she had something to say. However, the birds took this to a whole other level. Wherever she went, she had an entourage of birds, from hawkes to jays to eagles to herons to owls, she was never alone. They would immediately obey any order she gave without hesitation, and defended her viciously anytime something dangerous occurred. In exchange, she kept watch over them, and had already made plans for renovations to their house as soon as they returned, in order to thank the birds further. They were all very respectful to her, and even gave advice occasionally. She would frequently fly with them, and was now so graceful in the air that it was truly a beautiful thing to watch. They all had made it clear that it was an honor to be allowed to fly with not just any Phoenix, but the King herself, which she hadn't understood until a bit later.

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><p><em>One year later<em>

She had discover several new things over the year by using the memories she had been gifted by the old King, and had written them all down in a mix of the Phoenix language and what she had discovered to be the draconic language. First of all, her position in the hierarchy was called _Kapraltei_, or King. The position had been passed on to her by the old king. Another was the extent of her powers. All phoenixes had a special ability of some sort, though there were some that had more than one. The rankings however, weren't decided by abilities, rather, they were decided by flame capacity which was decided rather easily.

The way to tell a phoenixes flame capacity, was to look at their feathers and crest. White is the purest and most powerful. Blue is second. Red is third. Orange is fourth, Yellow is fifth. Anyone who had the slightest bit of white in their feathers had an incredible flame capacity, so she, with several large stripes that were white feathers interrupting the blues, reds, and greens. Her crest meanwhile, was half white, with another portion blue, and the edges crimson. The greens in her feathers signified an affinity with wind, while the blacks of her primary feathers were a sign of an affinity with dimensional magic (which is a fancy way of saying she could make subspaces to catch attacks and open them somewhere else, or to store things with) and the gold tint was a sign of light magic. Her ivory talons showed the fact that she was of royal heritage.

She also had a very high learning capacity, she had already been very intelligent on her own, but combined with the ex-King's memory and processing speeds, she was now a certifiable genius. Thus, she had learned several languages, of both animals and people, along with extensively studying medical science and technology. She had already drawn up some plans for a robot she planned on entering into the contest, now she just needed to build it. First though, she had to finish her job.

Over the year, she had discovered that as a phoenix, her nature demanded that she protect the innocent, and help those who are honest and just. It was an urge that was impossible to deny. She had taken up hacking as a hobby, and, cracking her knuckles, her fingers came down and danced across the keyboard at a ridiculous speed. The family had pathetic defenses (by her standards) so she didn't even need to bring out her second keyboard, much less the third. The idiots had thought that child trafficking and experimentation was the way to go, however, she obviously wasn't going to stand for something like that.

Within a few minutes, she had bypassed all the security, and was sweeping the information at a rapid pace, storing and categorizing everything important-both electronically and mentally-to send to her people. She had made an alliance with several organizations, both in the more decent mafia famiglias, and in the crime fighting organizations, under the name _Vento_. Her partners all knew that she never did anything that would intentionally harm other people, and thus, didn't bring such matters to her attention, settling for a lower standard on that kind of job.

Finally, she smiled and stretched, letting out a pleased sound in regards to her success. Also, something else had changed over the year. Her voice had matured oddly quickly, and, while not what it would be as an adult, was slightly husky, with song-like undertones, so beautiful that anyone who listened to it without fairly strong willpower would become distracted and unable to focus on much else. Also, her phoenix side's trilling, musical voice rang throughout her words, seeming to sound alongside them, until it was as though every word was accompanied by a sound that, to those of honest nature, filled one with the sensation of euphoric happiness, easing your worries and relaxing your stress, reminiscent of angels singing. The dishonest however, would immediately feel severe pain ringing throughout their skulls, her voice stunningly, terrifyingly beautiful, like the brilliant scales of a poisonous snake, so beautiful you can't help but listen, yet, at the same time, dangerous, which cannot be forgotten unless you don't mind excruciating poison flowing through your veins.

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><p><em>3 years later, age 8<em>

_Why!? Why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve such suffering?.../...It hurts! Stop, please stop! I beg of you, don't, don't do this!.../...Stop, no more needles, no more pain, please.../...What..Is that..don't put that thing on me! I'm not a dog! You cannot __**collar**_ _me!.../...Don't put me back in there, I don't want to, no! Remove these chains! Let me out of this, this, __**birdcage!**_ _Please, don't leave me in here!_

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><p><em>2 years later, age 10<em>

"Hey mama, why can't I remember anything from the last three years?"

"Do you want the pretty lies, or the ugly truth?"

"...Truth."

"That's my girl. You were kidnapped and imprisoned. Your mind sealed the memories for your safety, though. Don't worry, they'll return to you when your subconscious thinks you're ready, so don't push until then. Anyways, back to training. I want you to take up a hobby outside of cooking and inventing. While you're as good as I am, and still getting better, at the first, and a genius at creating hardware and software both, you need something else to do."

At that moment, a commercial came on, showing several people running across building, leaping through the air as though that was where they were meant to be. Tsuki stared at them for a long moment. The freedom in their movement, being able to fly without wings… It had been so long since she could fly freely, people were all over the place, and there weren't many places she could go to enjoy the freedom of flight without worries. She had missed the wind in her hair, pushing her onward. Maybe it was time to be free once more.

"Mama, what do you think of free running…"

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><p><em>6 months later<em>

"Oh my god! Look at that! How is it even possible!?"

"Truly _Amato di il Vento_…"

"Momma, momma! Can I fly like that too?"

"No, sweetie, she worked hard to be able to do that. However, she's doing a signing afterwards, so maybe you can ask her some questions!"

"Really, momma! Yatta! I get to meet the Amato di il Vento! Wait till the others at school hear about this! They'll be so jealous!"

"Of course sweetie, but don't be rude."

"Yes, mom."

"Woah! How did she do that!? Running straight up a wall so far shouldn't be possible!"

"Who cares! Just enjoy it!"

"Did you see that flip! Man, there's truly no one like her in this industry."

"Doing a twist like that from so high up, and those maneuvers, ai-yai-yai, so dangerous! Yet, she pulls it off so perfectly!"

Conversations like this filled the air in the streets of Venice, Italy. Fans of freerunning from all over had turned up to get a good look at the Beloved of the Wind, a freerunner who had appeared four months ago. Nobody had noticed her too much at first, due to her techniques being a bit stiff and dull. Obviously a newbie. However, within a month, that changed. The boring, safe maneuvers had become flowing, wild stunts, that were each executed perfectly and beautifully. She had done things from running up vertical planes, climbing skyscrapers or cliffs, running through the concrete jungle, or the real jungle… They hadn't seen anything like it, and the things she did seemed impossible. By the fourth month, someone who was a known critic of free runners had stated, a joyful, carefree expression on their face, that she was '_truly the Beloved of the Wind, it always pushes her onwards, and never allows her to fall. She runs with the wind at her back, and forever ahead, if this is freerunning, I think I can understand why so many people love it.'_ The Italians had caught onto the name first, and it had stuck. She was the Amato di il Vento, their Beloved of the Wind.

Not only was her running something that everyone wanted to see, they also climbed over each other to get to the girl herself. Despite being tiny (they assumed it was part of her heritage) she exuded maturity, and everything she said, she meant. She spoke kindly to everyone, and remembered every fans name (yay perfect memory! It really comes in handy), treating them as though they were all that mattered in the moment she spoke to them. Her voice by itself had drawn many to her side, and all the critics would immediately change their tune as soon as they met her.

There had been one occasion in which a child, dying of a mutated poison which had accidently been given to him, had sent her fan-mail requesting a meeting before he died. His parents had already departed for the afterlife, and he was left by himself to die slowly and painfully. Within an hour of reading it, she arrived at the hospital, and rather than wait to be let in, had climbed the side of the building to the sixteenth floor, and jumped into his room by the window. A fan had been nearby at the time, and sent out a mail on the fansite, that the _Amato_ had been seen climbing into a hospital room looking worried. They recognized her easily, due to the trademark blue-red-green-white-black cape she wore, which was cut into five long, scarf-like appendages that streamed behind her when she ran, almost like wings. She also wore an Aquamarine colored bird-like mask, with rubies and emeralds as adornments, it had feathers flowing from the top over her head, Sapphire and Emerald with red tints in color. Those who had gotten close had said they had seen a hint of heterochromatic eyes, though they couldn't quite tell the exact colors. Finally, she always wore a crimson short kimono with flame-like patterns over a black bodysuit, emerald green gloves that had a few feathers decorating them, and sapphire blue boots that were covered in feather patterns.

Meanwhile, in the room, a young nine year old boy, with a fluffy black-blue afro which was beginning to be less poofy and more curly as he grew older, and a cow-print t-shirt laying folded on some dark jeans nearby, was staring in awe at the girl who he had looked up to ever since he first saw her run. He had written that letter, hoping he would get to see his idol before he died. His parents weren't actually dead, however, they might as well be. They had told him he was useless, and thrown him out, saying their Family had no use for a weak, whiny brat, who couldn't even do a simple mission without getting fatally poisoned. As far as they were concerned he could "Go die out there by yourself as punishment. That's all a pathetic brat like you deserves." He had fled, and after falling unconscious on the streets, been taken to the hospital. Soon enough, he was nearing his last days, and had chanced writing that letter. Now, his wish had come true and, while overjoyed, he really _had no idea what to say!_

Apparently though, it wasn't necessary for him to say anything, as, below the mask, a gentle smile appeared, and even though he couldn't see her face, he felt warmer than he ever had before. However, what he wasn't expecting, was for the Amato di il Vento, most secretive super-famous person in free-running, to reach up, and remove her mask right in front of him! He stared, mouth agape, at the most beautiful (ten-years old! Only a year older than me!) girl he had ever seen. The smile on her face, that lit the room and made him more relaxed than he had felt in years, certainly wasn't helping his shell-shocked state. Then, more impossible things had to happen (though he didn't notice, he was used to the impossible, growing up like he did). Like, for example, her suddenly pulling a high-quality, old fashioned tea set out of thin air, along with a jar bottle of spring water (gathered and boiled personally, fresh from mount fuji itself! Seriously, that stuff is good) and some tea leaves, along with a couple other items, at which point she sat down and began making tea from scratch. In his hospital room. The _Amato_ was sitting in his hospital room, making tea by hand.

What.

While he stared in astonished silence, she continued making her tea, and a few minutes later, had finished two delicious smelling cups. Once again, she placed all the equipment into hammerspace, and pulled out a new vial. It had a clear liquid in it, that seemed to glow and sparkle softly. She carefully pulled out the stopper in the vial, and added three drops to his cup, before re-stopping it, and placing it back into hammerspace. She then proceeded to hand him his cup, taking her own and sipping elegantly. Still stunned, he automatically took a sip, not considering the fact that she had added a suspicious liquid to to his, and immediately, a clear difference was felt. His mind was clear, the pain that had been a constant companion was gone, and everything felt as though it had been refined and perfected, until there wasn't a single flaw. Plus, the tea was quite delicious. He quickly took another sip, and the two of them continued drinking in amiable silence. Finally, the two finished, and, after she cleaned everything up, vanishing it all back to hammerspace, they both simply looked at each other. By now, he felt relaxed in her presence, as though he had known her his entire life, and so leaned back in a relaxed manner that had been absent since he had been poisoned.

Abruptly, she broke the silence, introducing herself first name in front, as foreigners insisted one do. "My name is Tsukiyume Sawada. What's yours?"

So, he responded, "Lambo. Bovino Lambo. Nice to meet you too." He did his best to seem as cool and collected as possible, hoping to impress his idol. She smiled at him, the previous gentle one seeming plain in comparison to this one, which was brilliant, exuding a feeling of warmth and acceptance, filling him with a joyous feeling, and, despite the fact that they had just meant, he couldn't help but think, _I want to protect this smile._

"So, Lambo, how do you feel about coming to live with me in Japan, as my new brother?"

He stared for a long moment, searching her eyes to see if this was a cruel joke, but, when all he found was kindness, he switched over to Japanese, and, with a broad grin, replied, "I'd love to, Onee-san."

They shared a smile, before Tsuki spoke once again. "Well, let's get you checked out of this place," and as she gave a meaningful glance, and a barely noticeable shudder, at the hospital room, they both stood and began to walk out.

Remembering something, he ran back to grab his clothes, blushing when she chuckled at him. "Wait, nee-san, how are you going to check me out? You aren't my guardian, heck, you aren't even of legal age!"

All she did was smirk at him, putting her mask on once more as they walked out.

"Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies."

(Later, this visit became a legend among her fans. After "investigating" (hacking) the hospital, they found out that someone who was going to die had been in that room, and that one hour after she was seen entering, had been checked out completely healthy. The most mysterious thing, though, was that no one speculated about what happened. Later, when asked why, they simply looked at the investigator (snoop) as though they were stupid, and said, "She's _Amato_. Do you need any more?")

* * *

><p><em>3 years later, age 12<em>

Tsukiyume sawada, recent undergoer of puberty, stared at herself in the mirror. Or, more specifically, her chest.

"...why me?" Her lament went unheard.

While most girls would be staring at their chest, upset due to the fact that things aren't going as well as they'd hoped, Tsukiyume had the opposite problem. She was rather well-developed for her age, and they were a rather nice shape as well. Any boys who saw her would surely be attracted. Tsuki though, didn't see it that way.

"Tsk, why do I have such bad luck! These things aren't good for much of anything, actually, they'll only get in my way! Plus, for some reason, I feel awkward when I think someone might notice I'm a bit… bigger, than the other girls…" She pondered the feeling for a moment, before quickly discounting it as ridiculous, and thinking of something else. Maybe bandages combined with some loose clothing will do the trick! She grinned at her brilliant idea. While she couldn't go completely flat with just bandages (not worth the discomfort), she could combine it with loose clothing to make herself seem much… flatter, I guess? It would also help with other things, as… well, let's just say the other two of her three sizes were coming along quite nicely as well. She had strong lean muscle, similar to that of a cat in that it was lean and barely noticeable except to those who looked carefully, and legs that were quite long and shapely, considering her… vertically-challenged stature (Just admit you're short!).

She also reached out to grab a pair of ultra thick glasses, which would make sure no one could see her eyes. She had become a true beauty, putting many photo-shopped models to shame even without makeup. Her heterochromatic eyes were Nebula Blue and Firestorm Orange, respectively, and had become even brighter than before, drawing you in and not letting go. Long, thick, pitch-black lashes framed her eyes, contrasting nicely with her moon-pale locks and white-blonde eyebrows. Her eyes had a slight almond shape, and were quite large. While sharp and intelligent, they were gentle and kind as well. However, slipping on those thick glasses to hide her different-colored eyes concealed her stunning eyes from view, and despite the fact that the rest of her face was beautiful as well, people would be too distracted with the ultra-thick panes to notice. Her mother was the one who first told her to wear the fake-glasses, and when asked why, she simply said, 'Protection.' She still didn't understand, but wore them anyways.

She was also a fairly poor student, not due to the fact that she was dumb, no, she knew these subjects well-enough that she could get a master's degree if she so wished. Nor did she have some ulterior motive. Rather, the fact was she didn't care. She never did her homework, because she would much rather be inventing a new recipe to put in her cookbook that she was co-writing alongside her mom (âme cooking) or working on creating another AI to keep Apollo company (she would call it Hermes). There were all sorts of things she could be doing, so why waste time on something dull like that? She cherished her freedom like nothing else, and school was like a chain tying her down. At the same time though, she chose not to skip a grade (or several), though she wasn't quite sure why. Her intuition had told her that it would be best to bear with it, so she did.

Finally, she smiled as she finished getting dressed, and stared out the window at her yard, while pulling her bag out of hammerspace.

Her yard was… interesting. Over the years, a company had come in and bought out all the land in their neighborhood, intending to change it into a huge office building. However, when they went after _her_ home, her tolerance went flying out the window. Immediately, she began making use of the skills and connections she had gained over the years, and within two weeks, had taken over the entire company. She then spent a while longer going through the employees, meeting and investigating each one, to decide who she would keep and who she would fire. Soon enough, she had a lot of land, a lot of people, and nothing to do. So, she made some… renovations.

Her house was fairly isolated from the huge resort she had created with the empty land. Most of the employees had only kept on the jobs they had due to the fact that they needed the money, however, she soon needed chefs, managers, fashion designers, architects, and more to renovate the area. Rather than one large building, there were several, from restaurants to bars to barbers to boutiques, everything was high quality, everyone provided good service, and everything was comfortable.

Her house, meanwhile, was surrounded by redwood trees (her employees still couldn't figure out how one day the area was empty, and the next it was a forest of huge trees. Just between you and me, Phoenix tears work surprisingly well for gardening as well as healing. Plants take to them quite well. There were several lakes and rock formations in the mini forest she had going, there were also several small waterfalls that doubled as baths for the various wildlife she had living in there (all of which didn't bother the humans, due to a talk she had with them) thus, the area was an uber-popular, nature-friendly place, which was clean and untouched by humans, so anytime someone from anywhere in the world wanted to enjoy a relaxing, peaceful environment without the city noises and polluted air they usually had to deal with, came there.

Another thing was, her entourage of birds from all over the world had plenty of space there, leading to lots of scientists trying to figure out how she had birds living out of their natural habitat, and even investigated for shady activity, however, they only found a beautiful area that the birds seemed to love. A few had managed to meet with the owner, though none had seen her without her mask on (this one was a plain, black, smiling theater mask), though after leaving, the scientists proclaimed that all the animals in the entire forest adored her. They followed her around, and respectfully made way for her passing. She had a day guard of eagles, hawks, and falcons, and a night guard of barn owls, snowy owls, great grey owls, and screech owls, which followed her and gave anyone who seemed the slightest bit suspicious the evil eye. As for those suckers that actually _tried_ to pull something shady… well, let's not go there.

Nachuraru had become an incredible success all over the world. The word spread, and it was now a giant in the resort industry, due to the uniqueness of having an area both natural and modern in a refreshing blend. Add to that the fact that she refused to open anymore branches, it gave a feeling of exclusivity, which lured the rich in, combined with good prices, which lured in the middle class.

Smiling and stretching, she was about to exit her room when her flames suddenly fluctuated horribly. She shuddered at the feeling, but at the same time, tracked it to the source. It was odd, due to the fact that it originated from an isolated, seemingly empty area, but she couldn't ignore it if she wanted to (which she didn't), and so, she did the obvious thing and jumped out the window. As she free-fell in mid-air, she switched into her full phoenix form. Over the years, she had perfected switching, and could now do it in a split second with hardly a thought. Snapping her wings out, she let out a cry of triumph, as it had been a while since she last entered this form.

Nearby, a large male phoenix was passing through the area (several birds had talked about how this area was safe and comfortable for a vacation, and he had come to investigate [translation:he wanted a vacation]) however, at the sound of a fellow phoenix, and a female at that! (why wasn't she with a flock, it was dangerous alone!) and what he saw nearly made him stall mid-flight. She was the King! They had been searching for the King for a while now, and had felt him pass on his title to another, though they had been unable to find the new King, until now, and what a King she was! She had an affinity with so many magics, and she even had white feathers making tiger-esque stripe along her back. The marking that showed her position was around her neck, and was especially intricate, though there was an odd scar nearby it… filing that away for later thought, he banked towards her location, unable to help noticing the fact that she was quite young, and quite beautiful. All phoenixes were elegant and powerful birds, though this one seemed to take it to the next level. Unfortunately, before he got close, she flamed away, and he was unable to trace her. Frustrated, he let out a furious screech, fire tasting the air as his wings lit with flame in his anger. Angry at the lost, though pleased he had at least gotten a feel of her signature, he flamed back to The Flock to tell his news.

Meanwhile, she blinked, looking around in confusion at where she was. It was a dirty, grey cell, though that wasn't what angered her. It was that the air stank of death and terror. She felt fury at the fact that someone dare do such a thing, and was unable to help the few notes of song that escaped her in anger, nearby, a man who barely heard the sound, fell to the ground as blood trickled from his ears, writhing in agony.

Back in the cell, a gasp from behind her made her whip around, and what she saw made her fury grow. However, she knew that "fire in the heart causes smoke in the head", and so she quickly forced herself to calm down. The reason for her fury, were four small children, beaten, bruised, and in awe, though one had another emotion she couldn't quite figure out. Plus… Pineapples? But they were the wrong color. She walked closer to them, and realized two things, first of all, the pineapple was his hair. Second of all… he was taller than her. Just like everyone else. Even the girl with the identical pineapple hairstyle was taller than her. So. Not. Cool. She quickly banished such thoughts with another realization. He had mismatched eyes just like her own, and, her soul-sight ability, which she thought she had under control, was showing her just how much whatever had happened to him had affected him. His soul was battered and bruised. He had been hurt, and now had difficulty trusting others. He had been through hell, literally, and remembered every second. She was amazed that despite this, his soul still wasn't completely black (though it was certainly close). However, this felt like an invasion of his privacy, so, with a bit of trouble, she forcibly closed her soul-sight.

"You. What are you."

She blinked at him, and trilled a bit, worried at his hoarse voice. He was clearly in pain, so, she ignored his question, instead leaning closer to look over his injuries. The first one she most clearly saw was a huge bruise around his arm. Hovering over it, she willed a single tear to her eye, and as the glimmering drop fell, she saw him narrow his eyes in confusion. However, that confusion turned to astonishment, as the wound immediately healed under her care. Taking advantage of his shocked state, she went over his entire body, healing every injury she came across, and then proceeded to heal the other two boys, whose original wariness changed to gratefulness, and a hint of awe. She was guessing this was the first time anyone treated them kindly, which was why such a simple act had such a big effect on them, though what she didn't realize was, that to them, this wasn't a simple act. As she finished tending to them, she turned to the girl, and, what she noticed caused her to flinch back in stunned horror at the cruelty of it.

The girl had no internal organs. She was being sustained by some sort of illusion that was taking the place of her organ.

She warbled out a few notes, concern so obvious that even they, who couldn't speak bird, could tell she was worried. The warbling notes changed to worried coos, and the magnificent bird that had suddenly come in and healed them of their injuries, allowing them to have a pain free moment for the first time in their memory, walked forward and nudged at the girls chin, which made the girl tilt her head in faint confusion. Suddenly, before their confused eyes, the girl was engulfed in flames and, a split second later, a beautiful girl, a bit younger than them, with the same wings and tail feathers as the phoenix that had stood there moments before, and runic markings flowing down her arms and legs, stood where the magnificent bird once had.

They felt a bit nervous, however, their instincts had them standing down, and even relaxing the slightest bit in this new persons presence. A moment later though, and they realized this wasn't a new person, she was the same as the phoenix that had just healed them of their injuries. Suddenly, in fluent Italian, the girl asked if she would please open her mouth, and Chrome automatically responded to the kind tone, parting her lips just slightly. Leaning forwards, the girl cried right into the palm of her hands, and the glimmering pool of tears had them staring in stunned awe. She reached forward, and carefully tilted the tears into the pineapple-haired girls mouth, before sitting back and carefully observing as she swallowed the liquid, and smiling as she felt her magic healing the girl. She sensed her organs rebuilding and reforming at a rapid pace, until the girl not only had good organs where she had previously had none, she was even healthier than most people could ever hope to be. Malnourishment and weak bone were repaired and strengthened, and soon, the girl looked healthy, not to mention quite beautiful.

Sitting back on her haunches, she smiled, the expression so full of joy (for them, when had anyone ever smiled so happily _for them_) that she received tentative smiles in return.

"It's a pleasure to meet all of you, my name is Tsukiyume Sawada, though you can call me Tsuki." She was unaware of the fact that her voice was beautiful enough to make angels weep, beautiful enough to make these broken children blink, and relax a little more. It was more than a beautiful voice, though, it was that her beautiful voice was so full of kindness and joy and concern for them.

"Kufufu, Mukuro Rokudo. A pleasure to meet you Tsuki," and for once in his life, he actually meant it.

"Tch, Ken Joshima." Despite his unfriendly tone, he was happy to see her.

"Chikusa Kakimoto." He couldn't feel much, however, he was glad that he could at least feel the happiness that came with meeting this girl who healed them and smiled, as though they were worth everything in the world and more.

"A-ah, C-Chrome D-Dokuro, thank y-you for h-h-helping m-me," a trembling smile lifted the girls lips. While clearly nervous, she also felt grateful to find someone who cared enough to save them.

"It's wonderful to meet you all!"

Before anything else could happen, the cell door suddenly slammed open. Several men in suits or lab coats ran in, and before anyone could do anything, several shots were launched with the intent to capture, not kill. They were precious experiments, after all. What they didn't anticipate though, was Tsuki snapping her wings open to shield the four children she had only just met. Four bullets pierced her wings, and she shuddered and let out a choked sound of pain, though nothing else slipped past her lips. She couldn't show weakness in such a situation. However, Mukuro saw her expression twist in pain, and saw the blood running down her wings. He felt a foreign feeling rush through him, though didn't dwell on it long, as possessive fury flooded his veins. He had already subconsciously established her as under his protection, despite only knowing her a short while, and anyone who harmed what was his, would _suffer_.

Staring directly into the leaders eyes, he summoned an illusion. Suddenly, lava pillars burst through the floor, and they screamed a the burned alive. The four who had shot her though, didn't get such an easy death. Fiery vines twined their way up their bodies, leaving a trail of burnt skin behind, wrapping around the four idiots who had thought it smart to harm what belonged to _him_. A terrible smile crept across his face as they were burned alive. It took several minutes for them to die, and he turned to the girl who had been harmed protecting them. As he turned, he couldn't help feeling a bit worried, after all, she had just watched him torture and murder several people. However, when he looked at her, all he saw was concern for his wellbeing. She leaned forward a bit, cupped his face in her hands and, staring into his blue and red eyes with her own blue and orange, asked one question he would never forget, even years later, he would remember those words, and the one who said them.

"Mukuro-kun, are you okay?"

He felt joy flood his veins as she asked that question. To him, this meant that she cared. She cared about him and his health (mental or physical? probably both…) enough to be worried, enough to ask whether or not he was okay. In his joy, a few tears slipped out (though he would deny it later) and her expression became even more worried than before, if possible. Grimacing at the pain it caused, she carefully wrapped the four children in her wings, doing her best to comfort them all. They had only known each other a short while, and yet they were already a family.

"Mukuro, Chrome, Ken, Chikusa. Would you like to come home with me?"

The question didn't require a moments thought. The four of them answered as one.

"Of Course."

Her only reply was to smile, and suddenly, they were enveloped in flames. A moment later, the four children gasped, as this was the first time they had ever been outside, and it was truly a beautiful place to end up. However, they were unable to stare in awe for long, as Tsuki collapsed almost as soon as they arrived. Quickly standing up, Mukuro gathered the smaller girl in his arms, and carried her over to the house that was right next to where they landed. After all, he was sure she would have taken them to a safe place. He trusted her.

The other three tossed worried glances as they walked, and tensed the slightest bit as they rang the doorbell. They heard a kind voice from inside, saying something about a lambo and getting the door, before it swung inwards, revealing a lazy-looking 11 year old standing there, though the calm, tired look changed to one of alertness and worry as he saw who was standing there, or rather, what they were carrying.

"Quickly carry her inside, I'll get momma."

They walked inside, Mukuro being careful not to jostle the limp form in his arms. He laid her on the rug when the boy gestured for him to, The others carefully spreading her wings so she didn't lay on them.

Soon enough, a young-looking woman with short brown hair walked in, and, seeing the state of her daughter, narrowed her eyes. Her demeanor, previously that of a kind housewife, quickly changed into a sharp eyed, intelligent mother whose daughter had been injured and required attention. Rolling up her sleeves, she quickly began barking out orders to the five worried children hovering nearby. Her hands lit in dark blue flames that looked oddly like water, and poured the flames into her daughter's body. They had discovered an odd effect of these flames on her body a short while ago. While it tranquilized and relieved pain like it was supposed to, it had another effect on her. Whenever her flames encountered another type, it would leap towards it and analyze it, investigating the intention and intended effect. Once, in a spar, she had used them to slow her daughters movement and reaction time. Or rather, she tried to. The sky flames running through her snapped awake at the sensation of foreign flames, and moved towards them. Within a split second of analyzing the flames, they were burned from her system and, if her daughter hadn't regained control, would have targeted her next.

However, when the intention behind them was to lessen her pain, though, the flames turned around and burned through her own body instead. They would search for the source of pain, and as soon as they found it, would work towards repairing it. The sky flame was a mix of all the others, which meant, there were sun flames as well. Hers were so powerful that, unlike the faint sun flames a sky user would usually be able to channel, she could instead use all the types at a moderately decent strength, though still nowhere near as strong as her sky flames. Basically, if there was a foreign object, the sky flames would destroy it by channeling storm flames, before healing the wound using sun flames. This process occurred before her very eyes once again. Also, due to her phoenix heritage, which had incredibly regeneration, her injuries were healed almost instantaneously, rather than the hours it would take otherwise.

When the children returned, they stared for a long moment at Tsuki, who was perfectly healed, though still unconscious, and Nana, who impatiently gestured at them to bring the items over. Grabbing the juice boxes and cookies, she opened them up, and passed them out to everyone, before grabbing the jar of Nutella. Carefully spooning a bit out, she fed some of the chocolatey substance to her still-unconscious daughter. The reaction was almost instantaneous. Her heterochromatic eyes opened tiredly, while she reached around and grabbed the spoon and jar of Nutella. Soon enough, she had cleaned out the entire jar, and set it down, before smiling brightly at the people who were staring at her in utter astonishment. Quickly realizing what they were so confused about, she explained the situation.

"You see, I can't go without eating a jar of Nutella for more than 24 hours. If I do, the I start to get sick, and eventually fall unconscious. If I go over 3 days without any Nutella, Then I go into a coma. If I go without it for a week, I die."

"..."

"..."

"...What."

"Yeah… it's kind of embarrassing…"

"I always thought you just really liked it. Never knew the real reason."

"Oh, I do really like it. At the same time though, without it, I'll quite literally die. We've tried to figure out why, and how to fix it, however, we never found anything and so eventually gave up."

"Well. At least it'll be interesting."

"True."

"Yep."

"Hn."

"Y-yeah…"

"Tch."

* * *

><p><em>1 year later<em>

As Tsukiyume Sawada aka Free-runner _Amato di il Vento_, aka Legendary Hacker _Vento_, aka Culinary Genius _Truquer_, and God only knows what else, stared at the fedora-wearing infant in front of her, she had a terrible feeling that something big was about to happen. For a long moment, she stared at the infant (no, not an infant, his soul is that of an adult's. This curse is rather intricate, though it shouldn't take to long to figure out) before turning to look heavenward, asking a simple question, that nobody ever answered.

"Why do these things always happen to me?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN** - There you have it! My newest story, freedom's will. For those who read the others, don't worry, I'll get back to them soon (next chapter for WoS is in the works, and I'm working on the monster types for Natum Per Ignem) so don't worry about me abandoning them. I've been having a bit of trouble with writing lately. Basically, it went like this. First, study for exams, then take exams, then Christmas (which is firmly family time in my house), then my dad's wife went domestic violence on him, and when he left to stay with my grandma's, she _broke in_, assaulted him, tried to hit my grandma when she came to investigate, ended up hitting my brain damaged war veteran dad on his bad side, and made her escape, at which point the police finally showed up. Also, school started again.

Yep. Fun.

After that, grandmama fell ill, and is only now recovering, so I was a bit distracted from writing for a while there. However, fear not, for I have returned, bearing new fanfiction. This is fairly good for a first chapter, and just telling you now, but this is a bit of a crack fic, though it will also have some dark undertones.

**You have been warned. If you didn't read it, that's your problem.**

**Translations**

Welunixen - draconic translator - Moonfire

Yue - chinese - moon

Kasai - Japanese - Fire

Truquer - French - cook, rig, fake, fudge, fiddle, copy

Amato di il Vento - Italian - Beloved of the Wind

Vento - Wind

***Yeah, I used google translate, so sorry to those who actually know the languages for the future butchering.

Ciao Ciao~

-Lupa Altre

Murphy's Law, everybody. Don't forget it.


	2. Chapter 2 - In which I break reality

"It bugs me when people say things like, "be reasonable". I end up left behind, wondering, why? Who cares if it's reasonable, so long as it's fun? I get that we need order, like, you can't go out and murder twenty people because you want to, but when people start applying that phrase, "be reasonable" to purely fun things, like skydiving for example, that's when it's uncool." -Lupa

_Freedom's Will. The will to be completely unrestrained, to go where you wish, and do what you wish, when you wish, how you wish. It's simple to achieve, really. Just have fun. -Altre_

**Disclaimer: I do not own Katekyo Hitman Reborn or anything else mentioned in this **

**chapter. The rights go to the respective creators. This is non-profit, and solely for entertainment purposes.**

* * *

><p>After she finished her lament to the sky in regards to her overall terrible luck, she turned back to the not-quite-child in front of her-was that a spark of sadistic amusement she saw?-and asked, "Well, it's lovely to meet you, not-quite-child, however, I have no idea why you're here. Perhaps you have the wrong house?" She nervously tightened the scarf she had chosen for today. She could only hope.<p>

"Is this the Sawada household."

Well, there went her hope. She really should have been used to it by now.

"...Yes."

That expression wasn't supposed to be on an infant's face. Then again, she had already realized he wasn't an infant. She turned away. "Excuse me, I need to throw all of my expectations and logic out the window to survive the upcoming months." She closed her eyes and, focusing, gathered all the rules about the world as a whole that she knew of, and locked it away in a tiny corner of her mind. "Okay, you can come in now."

If anything, that terrifying smirk widened as he walked in, giving an appraising look to the entryway, before nodding as though in approval. He then turned back to her, looked directly in her eyes, and said a statement that, in years to come, she would look back on and remember as the day her world started spinning backwards. The strange thing was, she didn't regret it.

"Ciaossu. I'm Reborn, your new home tutor."

She nodded in reply, not considering the fact that most people would be incredibly confused and weirded out by now, or think that it was a prank. "Okay. So, where are you going to be staying?"

The look he gave her was rather worrying, considering what happens to those Reborn is interested in. Unfortunately, she missed it, though if she had noticed, she probably would have run for the hills. Her intuition was quite good, after all.

"I'll decide once I see my options."

She nodded thoughtfully in return. "A smart decision. You're probably a nightmare to deal with when it comes to business deals. Though, those souls latched onto yours tell a bit about your profession…"

A click behind her notified her of the fact that yes, she had indeed said that last bit out loud. Whoops?

"How did you know that." He demanded, sleek gun like gleaming obsidian in the light.

She decided truth would be the best option. "It's like I just said. The souls that are attached to yours. There aren't entire souls, just fragments. Mainly feelings of revenge and fear. I believe that tells me plenty."

"Hm. So you can see souls then. Interesting."

"I suppose since you're my tutor, you'll find everything out eventually either way. I'll tell you things on a need to know basis." At that moment, she felt the quesyness that came with not having eaten Nutella in the last 24 hours begin to set in. The last jar she had eaten had been at yesterday morning's breakfast, which meant-

Reborn raised an eyebrow as his interesting new charge collapsed to the ground beside him. He barely heard her mutter something along the lines of 'kitchen' before she fell completely unconscious. He shook his head, before grabbing her by the collar of her shirt and dragging her along to the aforementioned room, from which he could hear the sound of someone humming, and the clanking of dishes and silverware. As he walked, he considered his new student. Unpopular, unintelligent, clumsy, clueless, no talents, overall, a very pathetic person, especially considering she was meant to become a mafia boss.

However, from what he had seen so far, these things weren't exactly accurate. Then again, what did he expect from the idiot, especially considering he hadn't visited the family since his daughter was three. Pathetic. That still didn't account for the fact that she could see souls though. She also seemed to move with the easy grace of a jaguar moving through it's home territory. On guard, yet at the same time confident in the knowledge she could protect herself. He hadn't yet gotten a read on her intelligence, and though accepting what he said should have pointed to obliviousness, for some reason, he couldn't think of it like that. It felt closer to being so accustomed to strangeness that it had become normal to her.

As he walked through the doorway dragging his unconscious charge behind him (though he was at least careful to keep her from hitting her head, he was a gentleman after all) his smirk that had faded returned full force. This would be interesting, though first he needed to find out what made her faint all of a sudden. Medical problems weren't a deal breaker, but they would be troublesome.

Standing by the stove, a short woman with brown hair and kind looking eyes turned around to look at him. Upon seeing him, she blinked, before giving him the barest nod of respect, which confused him. After all, wasn't she supposed to be a kind, though incredibly dense, normal housewife? _Idiot Iemitsu. Do you know anything about your family?_

The woman-Nana Sawada, he remembered, sweet, oblivious, welcomed strangers into her home with ease, liked people to call her mama-turned to look at her daughter. She sighed at her prone state, shaking her head and grabbing a jar of chocolate nutty goodness, aka Nutella, and bringing it over along with a spoon. Kneeling down, she began spooning some out to feed to her daughter, looking fondly amused at her predicament.

"Honestly now, this daughter of mine keeps forgetting to eat her Nutella every morning, though she usually eats another jar during the day as well. Oh well." At that moment, Tsuki swallowed the spoonful, and woke up, though she still seemed a bit disoriented. She soon sat up and began cleaning out the rest of the jar, staring at him thoughtfully all the while. After she finished, she stood up to clean out and throw away the jar, before coming back to kneel in front of him.

"So, not-baby Reborn, it's a pleasure working with you, though I feel I'm going to regret this soon." She held out her hand for him to shake, looking directly into his eyes. Reborn couldn't help but feel a bit shocked at this, as all the people he met either looked down on him for appearing to be a child, or looked up to him in awe and fear as The Greatest Hitman in the world. It had been a long time since someone looked directly into his eyes and saw Reborn, not Reborn, the baby, or Reborn, World's Greatest Hitman.

"Hmph. We'll see. Although, why do you keep calling me not-baby" At that, he reached over and shook her hand. What he wasn't expecting, though, was for her to reply with, "obviously, I call you that because you're not a baby," sounding for all the world as though she couldn't understand why he didn't think of that already. His astonishment didn't last long, though, for as soon as their hands made contact, she hissed and jerked back, and he arched a brow as odd swirling lines seemed to light up along her skin for a few seconds. He gave her a questioning look, clearly awaiting an explanation. Seeing this, she quickly elaborated.

"That curse that's on you. I've never seen anything quite so powerful, nor quite so terribly necessary…" She murmured, but, before he said anything, she continued, "I don't see why it was placed on a human, though, after all, it would work just as well in a container of phoenix-flame tempered diamond. Dimensional magic would need to be applied, with a self-sustaining base, perhaps it could absorb enough energy from the world as a whole, though not enough to cause any damage, while circulating the flames so that they wouldn't die out…" At this point she had completely forgotten that he was there, and rambled on about possible theories and ways to make it more efficient.

"Tsuki-chan, you can continue this later, but for now, don't you need to go to school. You still haven't woken the others, too."

She received a blank stare for a long moment, before something seemed to connect and her eyes widened in realization. Turning to Reborn, she stated, "come with me, and you'll find out one of my bigger secrets." She then proceeded to walk outside, and, after considering it for a moment, he followed. Before he could ask her anything, she was covered in white-blue-crimson flames, and a second later, a 4' 9" tall bird-easily the most stunning he had ever seen-stood where she once had. However, Reborn wouldn't be Reborn if he didn't adjust quickly, though he did wonder why she entrusted something so huge to someone she had met under an hour ago, so, when she turned to look at him expectantly, he quickly understood her meaning and ran over to jump on her back, just in between her shoulder blades. She spread her wings, and before a normal person could have registered the movement-but we all know Reborn isn't normal-she was in the air, smoothly gliding up to a nearby window. Looking into the huge room, he saw a glimpse of four boys fast asleep. A window right next to it held a bedroom just as large as the boys, though this one seemed was decorated to look like the sky at dusk, while the other was decorated like the sky at dawn.

She looked at him, and made a few odd song-like chirps and trills, which he somehow understood to mean, 'cover your ears'. He thought she had a good reason to, and so did as she requested. Just in time, too, as she turned to look in the window, inhaled deeply, and _screeched_. The sound echoed throughout the entire resort, and every single employee immediately snapped awake. That sound had long been established as the official wake-up call. All the employees were trusted, thus, they knew the origin of the sound. They didn't need to worry about anyone selling her out, as, due to her phoenix heritage, she could instinctually tell who was honest and trustworthy. Meanwhile, the ones who got the worst of it were the four boys who were now wide awake. As Reborn watched the reactions, he couldn't help but feel amused, along with glad that he hadn't experienced it as well.

The sound of hundreds of wings beating filled the air, and had him blinking in confusion, though it didn't last long, for she abruptly fell backwards from the window sill, as a chain coiled past where she had just been, originating from the room. She screeched something up to the pineapple-haired boy-who was looking out with an amused smirk as she gracefully maneuvered back around-which sounded vaguely like '_sexual harassment!'_, oddly enough, which the boy apparently found amusing as he just smirked and called back, "I knew you would dodge it, Tsuki-chan!", though his tone was slightly disappointed, which she responded to with more screeching that he was fairly sure translated to various curses in bird.

Apparently giving up on reasoning with him, she turned around, and he then saw the origin of the flapping sounds he had heard earlier. A massive flock of birds had settled into the trees, looking at Tsukiyume with what he realized was an expectant air. She appeared to be expecting this, as she launched into a long series of coos, trills, chirps, and screeches, which, as he saw different… squadrons? of birds (each squad wears a different colored band around one of their feet, example, attack has red, guard has purple, recon has black, patrol has blue, etc. There are also subdivisions that rotate out, so that they can get rest. Subdivisions are indicated by different patterns on their band.) taking off each time she paused, he realized were orders. Soon, there was only a group of birds with purple bands that had vine-like designs left.

Apparently finished, she angled herself in what he remembered to be the direction of the school. He felt her muscles coil beneath him, and suddenly, she was effortlessly flying at 80mph without even feeling strained.

Her guard followed behind her, the tailwind behind them helping them to keep up as she moved through the air as though she was part of it, and he realized that she was only moving so slowly because her guard couldn't keep up otherwise. The grace and elegance with which she flew impressed even him, and he was _Reborn_. He couldn't imagine how awe-inspiring it must be to lesser people (it's not arrogance if it's true). Within a few short minutes, they arrived at the school, and she circled for a few moments, checking for anyone who might see her drop out of the sky and turn into a human. Yeah, that would be hard to explain, though he knew he could pull it off.

She alighted into a large sakura tree in the courtyard, and her smooth movements once again impressed him, as he didn't even feel the impact. Glancing around once more, she was engulfed in flame (and Reborn was interested to find it didn't burn, and instead only felt pleasantly warm) before turning back into a human, where Reborn found himself atop her head. Getting comfortable, he decided that he had found himself a nice new resting place, as her hair was so ridiculously soft and smooth, like silk and velvet and other soft things combined. She gracefully hopped down from the tree, and then reached up and literally pulled a pair of ultra-thick glasses out of thin air. Placing them on her nose, Reborn stared for a long moment at the change. It was then that he realized he still hadn't gotten a proper look at her facial features, as things kept popping up to distract him.

"A brief rundown of things. I can see souls. I can turn into a phoenix, and can also turn into a phoenix-human hybrid. I can teleport, or 'flame'. I have pyrokinesis, and control over weather. I can speak over 24 languages and counting, including Arabic, Egyptian, and Italian. I can speak to over 70 different species, and can mostly understand the variations depending on breed and location. I can sense severe fluctuations in the overall balance of… well, it's hard to categorize it, but I suppose the closest thing in the human language would be "good and evil", though things that would affect me and mine are felt more strongly, and can affect them if I get there in time. I also have influence with animals, can free-run, cook, hack, create programs and machines, along with some other things. Also, I have dimensional magic, and light magic affinity. Everything else will be on a need to know basis."

"If you were a video game character, you would be categorized as extremely over-powered."

"You have no room to talk."

"True," he conceded, and was about to continue before he was interrupted.

"Tsukiyume Sawada."

Tsukiyume turned around, looking directly into steel-grey eyes, while Reborn felt slightly irritated at the interruption. "Yes, Hibari-senpai?"

The skylark's eye twitched. "Kyoya."

"Hibari-senpai."

They both stared at each other, sharp eyes meeting ultra-thick glasses, before he finally looked away with a faint pink tint on his cheeks. "Tch." All she did was smile in return, though she was slightly confused as to why he blushed. It was at that moment Reborn realized he had an extremely dense student. He also felt the faintest stirring of irritation, and could have sworn something growled in the back of his mind.

"Where are the twin pineapple-herbivores, the whiny herbivore, the angry herbivore, and the quiet herbivore."

"I got them up a bit late today," she replied easily.

"Hn. Get to class."

"Of course, Hibari-senpai," she said cheerfully, while his only response was to click his tongue before turning to continue his patrol.

"So you know the so-called demon prefect of Namimori."

"Kyoya is really just a big softy. We've been friends since I hacked into the database of the DC about 3 years ago."

"Kyoya?" The irritation was back, and now he was certain he heard a faint animalistic snarling in the back of his head. Though, as soon as she responded, it became more of a purr, before fading completely. He would look into this later.

"Hm, I just call him by his last name to irritate him. Why?"

"Information is important to someone of my occupation." Luckily he managed to sidestep the question without lying, as he doubted a _phoenix_, symbol of honesty and honor, would take well to lies.

"Ah, that's a sensibly answer."

A smirk. "I know."

"Your modesty astounds even me."

"It's not arrogance if it's true."

"It's not paranoia if they're really after you."

"What does that have to do with anything."

"Nothing. I just wanted to say it."

"..."

"..."

"...I don't get out much, okay? I'm rarely given the chance to quote something."

"That's reasonable enough."

"It doesn't need to be reasonable. Just fun."

A smirk appeared once again. "Looks like we agree on something."

A matching smirk appeared on her own face. "Indeed. If you ever need help with something especially unreasonable, just give me a call."

Several people around the world shivered at that moment, getting the feeling that a partnership made in hell had just been formed. They hadn't lived this long ignoring their feelings, and so began looking into the best ways to escape discreetly and efficiently.

"Good doing business with you. I already have some ideas."

The shivers turned into full-blown shaking. They decided to speed up their plans. Maybe go on a vacation. To Antarctica. In an underground bunker.

* * *

><p>"...which would mean that x equals…"<p>

Tsukiyume Sawada, who _should_ have been listening to the teacher drone on in an inspiringly monotone voice (it's quite difficult to be that boring and not even try, you know) was currently writing complicated schematics and diagrams that she could use to assist her in fixing the curse. She already had the basic idea, however, she wanted to dumb it down a little, make it better, before putting it into play. Her phoenix abilities would be key, though, which made her think perhaps the reason it hadn't been solved, was simply because they didn't have phoenixes to help them along. She had even drawn in detailed sketches. {Lupa: even I don't get it, and this is my fanfiction / Altre: so, your own fanfic is outsmarting you now.../ Lupa: hey, this is your body too! you just insulted yourself! / Altre: who cares… *yawn*)

"...yume, Tsukiyume Sawada!"

"Yes, sensei." She drawled out, tone holding the barest hint of mocking laughter. Her sad excuse for a sensei turned an amusing shade of red as he caught the trace of amusement, though his expression soon turned into a vindictive smirk as he gestured to the board. "So, _dame-Tsuki_, how would you like to try solving this problem."

She chuckled a bit at the name. When she first earned the title, she had been confused, as she didn't remember doing anything. However, she soon realized that was the reason she had earned it; she wasn't doing anything. She never did homework, or tried in sports, really, she simply didn't care. Soon enough, she began feeling amused at their shallowness. It reinforced to her the fact that people were selfish beings. They wouldn't bother to look past original appearances to see how she truly was, simply because it was easier to believe she was useless, and to make fun of her. There were people like Yamamoto, too, who never participated, but never helped either. While she found the others amusing, she didn't like that kind of person at all. As far as she could tell, it simply meant that they didn't care enough about others to help. That type was self-centered, they wanted people to notice and like them, not because they liked people, but because they _liked people liking them_. He hadn't given her any indication of something more, thus, she categorized him with the rest. That terrible fake smile of his only made things worse. Luckily for her good mood, he was absent today. Despite getting a good feeling from him, she ignored it due to the way he acted. However, if he changed, she'd be happy to befriend him.

There were also people like Kyoko and Hana. Hana had been disgusted with the "monkeys" actions, while Kyoko couldn't understand why anyone would act like that. She had eventually befriended the two of them, and they had quickly found they had a love for similar things. Like Hana, she enjoyed knowing things, and winning a debate. The two could get into long debates on a multitude of topics. Kyoko, meanwhile, simply held an innocent pleasure in things like medicine, cooking, sewing, and other things like that. The three had become a close-knit trio of friends, their group incredibly exclusive, at least until Mukuro, his groupies, and Lambo came along. However, everyone else wanted to get in simply because the group was full of cool and popular people, except for Tsuna of course. It was too bad that Tsuna had been chosen as the leader of their little group. Too bad for them. Sensing dishonesty was only part of the package when it came to her abilities, thus, the fools couldn't weasel their way in for the popularity, not that they didn't try. They were all quite persistent, she would give them that.

"_Dame-Tsuki_, are you going to answer this question in the sometime before class ends, or would you rather continue spacing out." The class snickered, however, Tsuki had entirely different thoughts on the matter.

"Hm, I can space out? Arigatou, sensei, I didn't realize it was an option!" Naivete, thy name is Tsuki.

In a super-secret hiding place nearby, Reborn did a mental facepalm. He didn't physically do one though, because even if nobody was around, he was still Reborn. He couldn't stop being suave and cool just because there was nobody around! What was that saying again… "Be awesome, even when nobody looking." That sounded about right. {Lupa:...I blame this on your influence / Altre: you're the overexcited one. I'm the apathetic one. So how? / Lupa: You're also the arrogant one, and you have even more ridiculous thoughts than me. I'm just the one who acts on them / Altre: ...tch}

"No, you can't!" He snarled out as his face turned a shade of purple that couldn't be healthy. "Just solve the problem already!"

"Sensei, are you okay? If the problem was affecting your health, you could have just told me, and I would have solved it…" The genuine worry in her voice had several people turning to stare, as they wondered, 'is it really possible to be so naive?'

Meanwhile, Tsuki had stood, and moved to the board. Looking over the equation for about ten seconds, she grabbed the piece of chalk, and began writing at a rapid-fire pace, in a neat, elegant script. She finished within 15 seconds. Before turning and giving the teacher another worried look. "Are you okay sensei? Now that the problem is solved, you won't get sick anymore, right?" At this, the people who had been searching the classroom discreetly for the real Tsuki (this one must be an imposter!) stared, along with everyone else, at the pure, sparkling aura of kindness and worry that seemed to be emanating from her.

"C-correct… Wait, if you could solve such a high-level question so easily the whole time, why have you gotten such bad grades!" Everyone in the class nodded along with this. They too wanted to know.

"Because I didn't want to."

Crickets chirped from outside.

"...what."

"Mm-hm. When you told us to do math, I wanted to draw, so I did. Sometimes I worked on other things though. However, it was never math class when I was interested, so I ignored it, cause I didn't want to." She proclaimed cheerfully, sounding as though she found it obvious. None of them had ever heard something so ridiculous that made so much sense.

"The point of school, though, is to learn and pay attention. If you don't need it, just skip some grades until you're at a level that interests you enough to do the work…"

"But, I had a feeling that I should stay here, so I did!"

"Well, if you are going to stay, do the work!"

"I can't"

"You can."

"No, I really can't. I am unable to do anything I don't want to, literally."

The class stared once again, as she continued spouting off impossible-sounding things like she was discussing the weather.

"That's impossible."

"Some say impossible is simply a different way of saying I'm-possible."

"What is this condition you speak of. Tell me, and maybe I'll believe you."

"It's from my childhood. Anytime I didn't want to do something, it ended terribly, while when I did want to do it, I excelled. One time for example, my mom told me to go swim in the lake, though I didn't want to, I went. Within five minutes, I almost drowned. There was another time where I fell of a building, and broke two ribs and an arm. The list continues."

One of the smarter brats spoke up then. "So… you developed a subconscious aversion to things you didn't want to do, until it literally became impossible to do them?"

"So one of you is more than a mindless sheep!" She said cheerfully, sounding genuinely pleased with the revelation, like that was what she honestly thought until now. This, more than anything, took a sledgehammer to the pride they had built up over the years. The lowest person on the social totem-pole, thought them all to be no more than mindless sheep?! Several of them began making plans to go soul-searching, and several more began considering the reason for their existence. Meanwhile, Tsuki stood there, obviously confused at the chain reaction her statement had caused.

Luckily, before anyone went into a coma due to their entire reality crashing down upon them, the bell rang {Altre: that would have been amusing to watch / Lupa: keep your sadism to yourself! I developed you to keep it from infecting me / Altre: and now you're stuck with the masochism. How sad. / Lupa:... shut up. I'm the original anyways / Altre: no, we're both the same personality, just different sides of the mood swings / Lupa: stop using logic against me! It hurts my brain…} and everyone snapped out of their mini-trances, running out of the classroom and leaving a large dust cloud in their wake.

"What was that all about," Tsuki questioned aloud, denseness making another appearance.

Hana suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "That's what happens when someones perceived reality is completely destroyed. Everyone will probably forget about this entire thing by tomorrow, due to their minds forcibly instating a mental block to hold off insanity from encroaching upon the realisation that things don't work the way they thought it did."

"So… everyone was really confused and will forget about it tomorrow due to-" for the next couple minutes, she rambled on about the brain's inner mechanisms and theories behind them, pondering different potential outcomes if a certain event occurred and other such things, completely forgetting the topic that brought them there in the first place.

"Tsukiyume, it really amazes me how you can be so ridiculously intelligent and mature, and yet so obliviously dense and childish at the same time."

"Hana-chan… I don't get it."

"You don't have to."

"Well, whatever. What did you pack for lunch today?" The abrupt change of topic would confuse most, but due to long periods of what Hana privately referred to as "Lunar exposure" (explanation: Tsuki means moon, which is also referred to as Luna, which also relates to lunatic, or insanity) she had grown used to such things. Actually, constantly keeping on your toes in an everyday conversation sharpened her wits, and helped in debates. Her fellow law-school students wouldn't know what hit them…

Interrupting Hana from her contemplative-rapidly-becoming-sadistically-vindictive train of thought, Tsuki began discussing the merits of hibachi chicken, and teriyaki chicken. Hana launched into the debate, arguing as the defense for the greatness of hibachi chicken over teriyaki. It would have been perfect with seemingly-innocent Kyoko there, who slid equally seemingly-innocent comments into the conversation to fuel the flames and bring in new topics. If they had the time, they could go for hours about whatever topic they had chosen. The three together were truly a force to be reckoned with, really, any lawyer who attempted to take them all on at once would be utterly decimated, before they began discussing boiled asparagus over steamed, thus adding insult to injury. (It had happened before. Kyoko had secretly sniggered at the comatose lawyer who had thought he could beat 3 children in a debate on which was more efficient and safe, oil or coal? You'll never know the answer they came to. Either way, they won by a landslide.

Who needs logic, anyways?

* * *

><p>"Hibari-senpai~, I have arrived!"<p>

"Hn."

Abruptly becoming serious (which left Reborn wondering if she experienced severe mood swings or something. Seriously, the way her mood kept changin was almost scary) she asked, "What job do you have for me this time, Kyoya."

He simply slid a file across to her in reply, though the animalistic part that seemed to have taken up residence in the back of Reborn's mind pointed out that he looked irritatingly satisfied at her saying his name. He was probably insane, but whatever, you can't be The World's Greatest anything without a little insanity, much less The World's Greatest Hitman. Anyways, he had, over the day, begun attempting to nudge at it, though the response was lackluster towards anything other than Tsukiyume. He could see why though, he had only known her a day, and already he developed a fondness, and slight protectiveness beyond her being his student and a lady. Anyways though, it acted almost as though it was tied down, and, when he thought that, he oddly enough got the briefest flash of a golden, reptilian beast tied up in chains in his mind, however, he didn't get a good look at it. What he did remember though, was that several of the chains seemed to have broken, and it was almost like it was waking up. He threw it out of his mind, though, as she sat down and cracked her knuckles before grabbing an odd looking thing, that appeared similar to glasses, though it was a smooth continuous band instead of two individual frames. She quickly replaced her glasses, once again before he could get a good look at her face. Reaching up into hammerspace once more, she handed him a similar pair of glasses, which he adjust to fit him before putting them on.

What he saw would have had him blinking in surprise if he was a lesser man, but, he was Reborn, no explanation needed. He instead settled for a feeling of slight interest, he was even a bit impressed. The area previously empty, now had a hologram of 3 large computer-screens, and three keyboards in a half-circle formation. She stood in the center, with each board and screen easily accessible. In the background, there were several lists of tasks and instructions, along with plans and theories. However, as she reached out, his attention was quickly drawn from the background to what she was doing. Within minutes, he was observing her using three different keyboards and screens all at once. Long streams of code appeared and disappeared on each screen as her fingers flew, at a speed nearing beyond what even his vision could see. He wasn't a hacker, but he knew enough to barely recognize it as some sort of maneuver that should have been impossible to do without three or more highly-skilled people, though apparently one was enough if they were incredibly fast and had three keyboards. At the same time, the coding was a variation of what he had knowledge of, and he was fairly sure it was even more advanced. At the end of the code, he barely noticed the tagline, _Vento_, on the central one, though the other two had the tags Jane Doe and John Doe, respectively, which he remembered as the English way of labeling people who they had no information on, not even a name. As she finally finished typing, apparently having gotten the information, he noticed the last thing she had sent was a message.

_Pleasure doing business with you,_

_Signed, Alteration_

Alteration. The name of the group made up of three top hackers, who, he realized, were all actually one teenage girl, with three keyboards. _Vento_, he knew, was the mouthpiece, and did most jobs solo, though, if it was especially difficult, all three would make an appearance. It was said that if all three appeared, save what you can and get out, because defenses have no chance against the might of them all together. Unfortunately, they were almost always too quick to get away, and if you did, they probably let you. It was said the entire thing was so smooth it was like they were one person.

_Oh, the irony of that statement_.

He hoped that if anyone ever found out she was Alteration, all on her own, he would be there to see it. Their reaction would definitely be one of the best.

"Hn. That's all."

"Thanks Kyoya. It was quite fun." As she stood to leave, she abruptly walked over and gave him a brief, friendly hug. What she didn't notice (though Reborn certainly did) was the way that his entire body tensed the slightest bit, and the tip of his ears turned bright red. It would have been amusing, if, ya know, he wasn't incredibly irritated at the entire interaction. As soon as she let him go and turned to leave, Reborn jumped down, counting on the fact that her reflexes would dictate she catch him. Luckily, he was right. As they walked away, him now resting comfortably in her arms, he briefly shot a smirk over her shoulder at Hibari. While he kept up his passive facade, his eyes gave away the fact that Reborn had just successfully earned his ire.

He only smirked wider.

* * *

><p>"So, what are you tutoring me for anyways?"<p>

"I'm The World's Greatest Hitman (oh, she could _hear_ the capital letters in that title) and am here on Nono's orders to tutor you in becoming the next boss of the Vongola Famiglia."

"Hm. Okay. This seems interesting."

"...the mafia is a bloody, dark organization."

"I know. I'll change it. If I can't, I'll burn everything from the bottom up, until there's nothing left but ashes." She said, tone serious. He could have sworn something flashed behind her glasses at that, a blue and orange light, as though to prove her seriousness.

"Heh. That's a good resolve." A pleased expression crossed his face. "You're already quite strong, however, it's my job to make you stronger, so, prepare for hell."

"Looks like my years of boredom are coming to an end. What's that line again, 'the water's getting warm so you might as well swim'. That applies rather well, I think."

"...did you just quote Smash Mouth."

"Hey. I love that song, okay. It's wonderful."

"..." She heard a tiny snort of amusement from her arms, but, when she looked, his expression was blank as ever.

As she was about to say something else, her phone suddenly rang, and, as if to prove her point earlier, All Star began to ring out.

_...Hey now, you're a rock star,_

_Get your game on,_

_Get paid~_

Not embarrassed in the least, she hummed along to the song as it rang out. He noticed that her voice sounded different when she relaxed, low and almost sultry, but quickly forgot about this when she finally answered the phone.

"Yes?"

"..."

"...seriously."

"..."

"Those _idiotas_. I'll be there soon. _Arrivederci_."

She snapped the phone closed, and put it away in her sleeve. How does that work? He then realized that was hypocritical, considering he stores things all over the place. A sleeve wasn't very odd at all. He refocused when she spoke again.

"Well, there goes my peaceful walk. Sorry, Reborn, but we have to take the fast way home."

He stayed silent, figuring he would find out why when they got there. Her muscles seemed to go lax for a moment, and it felt as though a touch swept by his mental senses for a moment. Her eyes opened again and she willed herself to change to her hybrid form. She had to sweep the area for any presences first, her maman had firmly ingrained that precaution in her. "Better safe than sorry, Tsuki-chan!" She sweatdropped at the memory, before spreading her wings, and, tensing her muscles, sent them high into the air with a single downsweep. She could still remember when she first took off, and how shocked she was at the strength of her wings. Spreading her fiery white-blue-red-black-green-gold wings, she balanced herself out. As the sun reflected off them, any observers would surely think of strangely colored fire in the sky, though, strange colors or not, it would still be the most beautiful inferno they would ever witness.

Unfortunately, no one witnessed this sight, and she flamed away to a hollow in the largest redwood tree they had. She had burned out the hollow long ago, so it was a smooth teardrop shape, with the floor covered in a soft bed of moss and leaves. It was essentially a very large nest. _Her_ nest. No birds dared enter except her guard, who, she just realized with a tinge of embarrassment, she had left behind. However, they had all spent so much time with her (plus, birds naturally could sense a phoenix) that they knew where she was, and so they probably weren't panicking and dive-bombing innocent people.

Probably. She could hope.

Anyways, as she walked over to the side of her nest, where there was a hollowed out shelf area, she set Reborn down (carefully, she didn't want to get shot. She could smell the gunpowder on him, so she knew he had a gun) and examined the items she had placed there. There was her _Amato di il Vento_ outfit, along with a simple black smiling theater mask, with red eyes and mouth. Reaching out, she snagged the theater mask, and switched it out for her glasses, though they went in hammerspace instead of on the shelf. She also snagged a white top hat, with a crimson band tied around it and a black flower pinned on, along with a crimson cloak that had black and white marking swirling along it in a random pattern. The outfit made her look both ridiculous and sophisticated at the same time, which really, only she and a few other people in the world could pull off.

Turning to Reborn, she decided to give him a warning. "I've got to switch into my persona as the eccentric and cheerful, yet serious owner of Nachuraru Resort. Everyone thinks of that version of me as a childish genius, with good business sense, and an affinity with animals, so be prepared for me to act a bit out of character. The point is, please don't shoot me for acting "unbefitting of a mafia boss" or something." She had the feeling that was exactly the kind of thing he would do.

"Fine."

She noticeably relaxed, before focusing a bit on her flames once more. The colors that previously appeared to look like her normal hair with faint, crazy highlights, darkened and widened, until her entire mane of hair was an eye-popping rainbow of several colors. She truly did look like an eccentric yet childish person. Her flames coated the clothes she wore, though he thought he saw a tinge of indigo, and suddenly instead of a school uniform, she was wearing a sharp suit and tie that was striped in red, white, and black lines of varying thickness. Her bare feet showed off ebony toenails, that seemed to be painted with red and white smiley faces.

Eccentric indeed.

Suddenly, with no warning, she leapt out of the hollow they were sitting in. Meandering over to the window, he observed as she jumped down, falling twenty feet or so between each branch she perched upon before leaping off to fall some more. Within moments, she was upon the forest floor. It was when she began running that he felt the tiniest bit impressed. She ran like she was part of it, moving like a wild animal on the hunt, with a confident, elegant purpose that made her flow over the rocks and between the trees without pausing. Not once did she imbalance or even stumble, not once did she so much as slow down. She moved with the feral grace of a big cat, and to someone normal who saw it, they would likely both be awed by it's beauty, and shrink back in fear. Humans have a primal instinct to avoid that which is dangerous and can kill you, and when she moved through the forest, like a wild animal herself, ones blood would sing of danger, saying that the only reason you aren't dead is because she has no interest in killing you.

For someone like Reborn, though, he was simply impressed with the smoothness and feral beauty of her movement. As he followed along behind her, alternating between using leon and jumping through the branches to move (which wasn't hard, they were rather close together). As he did so, he felt that chained primal part of him wake up, growl and strain at the chains. _He wanted to move, prowl through the forest like he should! 'Royalty such as himself should not be chained, kept from she who belongs to him! He was a-' _The thoughts that weren't his own cut off, and he realized it was because they were no longer moving. She had retracted her wings when he wasn't looking, and now looked normal, aside from… everything else.

She giggled cheerfully, forcing herself into the state of mind she had created for this persona. As she walked towards the scientist, and the several men in suits, she childishly did a few flips, finishing by doing one-handed cartwheels until she landed perfectly in front of them.

"Ten points! and the crowd goes wild!" She shouted in a sing-song voice, skipping around the serious looking group, and smirking when she saw the lips of several twitch.

"Miss Scarlett, I demand you stand still so we may discuss business." The scientist-guy said in a snooty tone.

"Yare, yare, who are you to be making demands of me, on my own territory?" She replied, tone lazily happy, sounding amused at his attempt to control the conversation.

"I have been sent from the Japanese government to investigate the area. This is incredibly suspicious. A forest popping up overnight, animals from foreign countries living here for seemingly no reason. The profit you make is definitely odd for such a _shabby establishment_." He sneered.

Her response was to laugh. "You want to investigate? That's fine, have fun!" before she proceeded to run up the side of a nearby tree, and begin jumping from branch to branch across gaps of twenty to thirty feet with relative ease. She was even doing twists and flips in midair, laughing all the while. "Since you're here, feel free to enjoy the area! There are several empty rooms, it's a slow time of year, you see."

"I expect premium rooms. Perhaps then I'll put in a good word for you."

"You wish, snivels." She chuckled out. "The government takes bribery now? Oh dear, how unfortunate, I wonder what your superiors might think. Besides, even at the slow time, my premium rooms are booked a year in advance, and there's no way I would kick out a paying customer for some government lackey. You'll do just fine in a normal room."

His face had turned red by the end of her little speech, and he spluttered angrily, something about "the audacity", though she didn't catch it. Behind him, the MIB wannabes were snickering, several attempting to keep a lid on their amusement, while others were keeled over as they tried to breathe through their restrained laughter. An eyebrow twitch later, and he whipped around to stare at the five of them. Somehow, they had miraculously managed to stand up perfectly straight, faces as blank as when they came in. He stared suspiciously for another moment, before turning back around to face her, sneer returning full force. However, before he could spew out more idiocy, 'Miss Scarlett' abruptly commented.

"Don't talk, you lower the IQ of the whole street. Also, keep sneering like that, and you'll never get a date, though with a personality to match your face looking like you ate a sour prune, I don't know if you have a chance either way." Then, turning to look at them, she said, in all seriousness, "Go ahead and laugh, holding it like that can't be good for you." Almost as soon as she said that, all five collapsed in raucous laughter. Tears streamed down their faces as they snorted and chortled, while the scientist, who she had dubbed, "My. Prune", was turning a rather violent shade of purple.

"You idiots! Fired, you're all fired! We don't need buffoons such as yourselves running around laughing at insults to your superiors!" This had their laughter coming to a grinding halt. She saw the worry in their expressions, and noticed a picture that had fallen out when they started laughing. The man was smiling, hugging a pretty, kind-looking woman and an utterly adorable child between them, smile on his cherubic face.

Her Miss Scarlett personality was different than her own in all but one thing. She had a quiet strength, that no one except the strong would see, nobody else able to look upon her kindness and warmth she offered to those she cared for. Miss Scarlett, meanwhile, was childish and energetic. Sly and intelligent, she easily tossed out snarky barbs, meant to tease rather than hurt. Charismatic with a strong presence, everyone took notice of, and considered everything she said, though didn't ask how high when she said jump, unlike Tsuki, who inspired unbreakable, bone-deep loyalty in those she gathered. However, something all her many personas had in common, was that she was kind, and protective over those she cared for. She thought that no matter who you are, you deserve acceptance and a home. When she was a child, she promised herself that she would never turn anyone away, no matter what issues they had previously.

Thus, when someone tossed away a member of their flock (she didn't notice her reversion to bird-speak) it incited her fury.

"You dare remove your own members from the flock for no reason beyond a moment of enjoyment? Disgusting! You do not deserve to be flock leader! You should be removed from your position and fed to the crows, like the maggots! Unworthy even as food for the graceful cats and forest runners! Shame be brought upon your name as flock leader!" She screeched, unfortunately, he was unable to understand most of it, due to the fact that she was speaking in bird. Reborn, however, winced a bit. He didn't even notice that he had understood her perfectly, despite never learning bird-speak. He was too focused on the insults she had snarled out at him, as they were some of the worst known to bird-kind.

At her proclamation, all the birds suddenly arrived in droves. Shrieking and cawing, they flashed their talons and snapped their beaks at the one foolish enough to anger their gentle King. She had inspired loyalty among the beasts of forest, air and sea. He would never be accepted among them, cast out of the flocks of the sky, herds of the earth, schools of the sea. They would not attack, they did not wish for their mistress to be troubled, however, their revenge would be longer, and far more painful that gouges and scars. He would forever be attacked by any animal within a 10 meter radius of him. Thus is the influence of the phoenix King. {Lupa:...this was Altre's idea. I blame her.}

Meanwhile, he looked utterly befuddled at having been shouted at with bird-like screeches in between. If he didn't know better, he would have thought she swore at him in bird. However, that was illogical, thus he assumed she was censoring herself to avoid saying something she would regret. What he got though, was she was angry he fired them over laughter at a joke.

"As their superior, they must respect me. Laughing at my expense is not only disrespect, but also shows unprofessional behavior, something we have no need for."

Her fury grew once more at his words, however, she stomped it down until she could get away and release it. Turning to the five who were clearly worried, her gaze softened. "I'll hire you on as guards," she stated bluntly. "You'll have good payment, food, a place to stay, and your families can come as well. I'll let you think on it until tomorrow." She could already see their decision with the hope shining in their eyes, however, she wanted them to be sure.

"And you," she snarled, turning on Mr. Prune, "had better not try anything with my employees. They're my _family_, and I don't tolerate threats. I respond with _promises_." She whipped around and departed, and, almost like they had never been guarding him, began to follow her.

"Where are you fools going!"

Almost as one, they looked back over their shoulders at him.

"We've been fired, remember?"

They walked away, leaving their former employer beginning to wonder if maybe he had made a mistake. They were, after all, the elite among the elite in their respective fields.

* * *

><p>She muttered under her breath as she pulled herself out of the bed. She was wound tighter than a coiled spring at the moment, and needed to relax. Mr. Prune had nitpicked everything seven ways to sunday the whole time he was there. In the end, however, he was unable to find anything the slightest bit questionable. The animals loved her, nature was well taken care-of, no signs of illegal activity, everything was safe. He had left in an angry huff, and minus five of the men he had come in with. She had also contacted one of her influential friends, and cheerfully told all about his behavior and actions. That job of his wouldn't last much longer if she had anything to say about it, and, you know, she kinda did.<p>

Friends in high places, darlin.

As she arrived downstairs, she took a long moment to stare at the sight before her. The five guys from yesterday were in her living room, with their respective families. One had a wife and daughter, another just had a wife, and the final three were single. Noticing her presence, they all turned around, and, so well in synch she wondered if this was practised, said, "we accept the job, Ma'am."

"...it feels really weird to have grown men say that to a thirteen year old child."

"We think so too."

"Okay, call me Tsuki or Tsukiyume unless I'm acting as Scarlett, then Miss Scarlett will do."

"Ok, Miss Tsuki."

"...good enough."

She then proceeded to ask about their skills and talents, and what they wanted to do, before assigning them to their positions. Several wanted to work with the animals, one wanted to work with developing new technology, and the last wanted to stick with being a guard. He would help train others (she believed that all employees in her park should be able to fight. You never know what might happen) in weaponry and hand-to-hand combat. Their wives wanted to work in the boutiques and the bakery, respectively, while the daughter would go to school.

She sighed and stretched until she heard a loud pop. It was quite tiring to arrange these things, and took a long time too. Thank God there was no school today. Thus she decided to relax a little while.

As she worked on her third container of Nutella, she hummed the theme song to Kyoukai no Kanata. Just as she was finishing up, a loud clattering from the stairs sounded. Suddenly, weird music started playing throughout the room as mist began rolling down the steps, in the meantime, Tsuki just rolled her eyes and started on her fourth Nutella container.

The lights started to flicker in a very horror movie-ish fashion. The shadows started to move and twist along the walls, and creepy laughter echoed, as the mist became tinted a rusty red color, similar to blood. Meanwhile, Tsuki continued to eat, and even started humming the ghostbusters theme-song. Hey, it was catchy, okay! Finally, a long shadow fell across the stairs, seeming to warp from one form to the next. A gleaming red light shone through the mist, with the kanji for one gleaming on it. The shadow reached out and coiled around her, draping itself around her waist, neck, and arms. The demonic shadows on the wall snarled and growled at her.

Tsukiyume sighed sadly as she finished her Nutella, throwing it into the trashcan before grabbing another. If you looked closely, you could see a sweatdrop from the direction of the glowing red light.

"Kufufufu. Oya, oya, little moon-chan, I'm hurt. Why would you ignore me despite all my effort?" He purred. Her only response was to yawn tiredly. Mukuro fell to the ground at the lackluster response. Quickly standing up again, he tried another tactic. Leaning close until his lips were only inches from hers, he traced his finger down the side of her face. He continued on down the side of her neck, tracing swirls and patterns before reaching her collarbone. He gently ran his finger over her collarbones, and leaning closely, he blew on her ear and was about to go lower, closer to the diamond on her chest (all her magic collected there, and her magic was wrapped around her nerves, a touch there…), when severe pain raced through his body. Collapsing to the ground, he groaned in pain as he curled into the fetal position.

"I wonder if the police would arrest a pineapple for sexual harassment too? Maybe I should find out sometime…" She hummed thoughtfully. He blanched, both at the 'pineapple' part, and at the fact that he knew she was honestly considering it.

"K-kufufu? It was just a joke, Tsuki-chan, a joke!"

"This is the third time this week."

"Urk!" The reason for his pain now, was a fedora wearing baby who had appeared out of nowhere, and proceeded to slam a hammer into his gut with considerable enthusiasm.

"Ah, Reborn. I'm going to take a shower."

"That's fine."

A victorious smirk crossed her face briefly, and disappeared just as fast. He blinked, and suddenly she was gone, a wisp of dust the only thing left to show she had once been there. He blinked again, and wondered if there was something he was missing. Going by the way Mukuro was gasping with a horrified expression on his face, he thought he might be right. Sighing, he decided to postpone the beating for later (the primal part, that he was becoming used to rather quickly, grumbled in annoyance at having to wait, but was too worried about Tsuki [Wulenixen] it hissed insistently, having been trying to get him to call her that since he noticed it), and first find out what was going on.

Finally catching his breath, Mukuro ground out, "do you have any idea what you've done?!"

"Obviously I don't."

"This… is worrying. The short version is, six months ago, she developed a condition, so that every time she submerges herself in water for over 30 seconds, she releases… pheromones. Very… alluring, pheromones, that anyone over thirteen can feel in a five mile radius. It's disastrous."

"Aren't you affected too?"

"Of course not. I already desire her, thus, the pheromones have nothing to affect. He stated proudly, not noticing the challenging glint that appeared in the other males eyes. "Anyways, I, along with Chikusa and Ken, who only have brotherly feelings for her, stand guard outside where she bathes, though I try and…" remembering who he was talking to, and noticing the tick that had appeared above his eye, he quickly went back to the original topic, "Uh, and Kyoko and Hana, along with Chrome, go into the bath with her, to guard her if someone slips past us."

"...This could be troublesome."

"That's what I said."

Reborn felt several more chains snapping on whatever it was in his mind, as it snarled in fury at the thought of anyone going near her. It was thrashing around in his mind (and giving him a massive headache) though, if he had been looking in a mirror, he would have seen his irises flash gold, pupils turning to slits before reverting back to normal. Tiny scales appeared along his arm before fading away once again.

"What a troublesome student."

* * *

><p><em>Nearby<em>

"She's nearing her 14th birthday. We need to contact her before that happens, otherwise, she might be overwhelmed by the full awakening of her phoenix blood."

"Indeed. I can still remember how painful it was for me, who was born a phoenix. I pity her, who has to deal with considerably worse pain due to her originally human heritage."

"We also need to be careful. Judging by her power, she will have several dragons."

"...I forgot about that. We're going to have to deal with several overpowered, over protective, humans with the souls of giant fire-breathing lizards."

"At least they shouldn't be able to manifest as their dragon until a little while after their awakening?"

"We can only hope."

Yet, why did they get a bad feeling about this?

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Lupa here! Glad to see you all again, and so soon, too! Anyways, another reminder. All27, adorable children. Not R27 (though that'll be there too) not 1827 (there'll be some too) not 6927 (I think you get it), but, **All27**. There. Now you can't feign ignorance.

Anyways… Yama-kun! I'm so sorrrryyyy! (cries in corner) I don't want to do this to him, however, I hate how people don't give Takeshi enough love in fanfiction. It's like, ok, we took care of the whole suicide thing, and now, let's just say he's cheerful and oblivious and shove him in the corner, only to have a couple lines of dialogue each chapter.

_No. Just, no._

8027 is like, my favorite pairing next to All27. Yet, like All27, it's like finding a golden needle in an equally golden haystack.

Borderline _impossible_. Thank God for the 8027 famiglia, fellow people who feel my pain. (you can join too, it's on facebook). Anyways, even if they do stick him in there in All27 fics or gen fics, it's so, two-dimensional, his personality is like a cardboard cut-out! WHY!? I think Takeshi is a character with lots of layers, lots of depth, very difficult to properly write. He's kind and cheerful, yet, at the same time, protective of those he cares for. Also, you can't just slap the kind and caring label on him, because remember, he spent all that time before Tsuna saved him _allowing him to be bullied, doing nothing to help_. He's not a bad person, rather, it's more like he's self-centered. His attempt at suicide for example, he didn't even consider his dad or anyone else who cared for him. He was all like _me me me_, and stuff. At the same time though, once he opens up, he's super-loyal and protective of them. It's beautiful. (Or maybe I'm just obsessed).

Anyways, he strikes me as the type who would be really over-protective and possessive of whoever he fell in love with, because of that thing with his mom dying. The person he loved most died, and he was unable to do anything to protect her but watch it happen. I think he's the type who would keep a tight hold on the person he loves, maybe even enough to restrain them, if he thought it would keep them safe. So there is a good side and a bad side both to Takeshi when it comes to romance. (Also, I portray him as considerably more perceptive in this story.) He's kind and caring, but also possessive and overbearing.

_Doesn't that sound __**fun**_.

Also, while the whole pheromones thing doesn't sound too bad, _think about it_. A young, innocent teenager, naked, relaxing in the bath, while attracting young males who have taken leave of their senses. Yeah. She would be able to fight them off, but it would be a traumatizing experience for the record books. The pheromones only affect those who don't already desire her, though. It's part of female phoenix biology once they come of age. Come up with details in your own imaginations.

**Translation**

Pertorqueo - Latin - name of phoenix individual abilities; to twist, distort (will come in later)

Nachuraru - Japanese - Natural


End file.
